Forming an Opportunity Belief: A Twist on Opportunity Identification

My Beginning Point: My belief is that students who live off campus would prefer to drive their cars to class at the University of Florida than to take the bus.

My Belief Description: The unmet need in my belief is the desire the students who live off-campus withhold to park on campus. Their desire is not met due to lack of available space to accommodate parking for 55,000 students. Let's say half of the student body lives off campus, that is still 27,500 parking spaces to provide. The origin of this need sprung from being able to park wherever I wanted at Santa Fe College. Now that I attend UF I must take the bus to class and if I want to park on campus, I must wait until parking is lifted after 3:30pm. The University of Florida does have a commuter lot for off-campus students but it is still congested and there is a fee due every semester to obtain a parking pass. I am very confident that this opportunity exists because of the feedback I've had from fellow classmates.

My Prototypical Customer 1 (Step 3): Analia Arias

Iteration 1 (Step 4): The nature of Analia's need is that it takes too long for the bus to arrive, not convenient to her schedule, and she has to wake up early to catch the bus. Sleep is an important factor for her to operate at an optimal cognitive level. The lack of time due to worrying about catching the bus also cuts into her opportunity to eat breakfast in the morning. Analia experiences this need every time she catches the bus to go to school. The need sprung whenever she moved here from Bolivia to attend college. Analia said she became aware of this need ever since her first week of school in the States. She has not begun not address her need but she is intrigued by my belief and supports it. Out of a 1-10 scale, she said my idea is a 12. So, I would say she's highly infatuated.

Reflection 1 (Step 5): I learned that others are just as willing as me or more to take action on this parking epidemic. The most surprising of it all is that Analia is pro-creation of more parking on campus due to exact reasons I am.

My Prototypical Customer 2 (Step 3): Sina Abbaszadeh

Iteration 2 (Step 4): Sina said that the nature of this need came from the inconvenience of the bus as well. He would rather park on campus instead of going out of his way to catch the bus. He also mentioned that buses are not sanitary and have a lack of space. Yes, buses are claimed to be cleaned regularly but with large amounts of traffic walking in and out the buses, it is hard to keep the buses clean. Sina is in love with working out, so having a gym bag with workout essentials is a necessity for him. Instead of just leaving the gym bag in his car, he has to carry it on the bus. Two bags can be hard to keep track of and also a disturbance to others if the bus is packed. He also said that other drivers are not very cautious of buses or their passengers. Sina would like to begin to cultivate an idea of how to begin to raise funds to propose parking expansion for off-campus students to UF. On a scale of 1-10, he said my opportunity belief is a 10.

Reflection 2 (Step 5): I learned that people are not just worried about the shortage of time the bus creates but also the health concerns due to unsanitary conditions the bus unintentionally provides. The most surprising thing about this observation is that Sina brought to light that other users of the public roads in Gainesville are not cautious of city buses or their passengers. I have never really noticed this but he has made a valid point.

My Prototypical Customer 3 (Step 3): Matthew Mix

Iteration 3 (Step 4): Again, the nature of this need also sprung from inconvenience for Matt as well. Matt said he would rather park on campus over taking the bus any day. This was said before he moved closer to campus. Once Matt started studying at UF he immediately became aware of the parking scarcity on campus and the need for parking expansion. Every time he rides the bus his opinion is not altered, he would rather park his vehicle on-campus. Matt also mentioned that the bus can be extremely packed at times and people will step all over him during his 20-minute ride. Matt has recently moved closer to campus to partially solve his need for parking. He does not live on campus but his bus ride is shorter than it was before. One a 1-10 scale Matt said my solution was a solid 8.

Reflection 3 (Step 5): Matt has similar problems as the rest of my prototypical customers. Even though he has taken more action to fulfill his need, his need has not been completely fulfilled. I was surprised to hear that he rated my opportunity belief an 8 compared to the other ratings I received, but everybody is entitled to their opinion.

Summarization: My opportunity belief is still there and I have also now brought it to others attention. The opportunity is just as accurate if not more than when I started. I now have people standing behind this need with me. A petition may be in the making as we speak.